Crinan Canal

The Crinan canal is a canal in the west of Scotland and is operated by Scottish Canals. It takes its name from the village of Crinan at its westerly end. Nine miles (14 km) long, it connects the village of Ardrishaig on Loch Gilp with the Sound of Jura, providing a navigable route between the Clyde and the Inner Hebrides, without the need for a long diversion around the Kintyre peninsula, and in particular the exposed Mull of Kintyre. The canal is 10 ft (3.0 m) deep and has essentially no height limit. Today it is a popular route for leisure craft between the Firth of Clyde and the west coast of Scotland, used by nearly 2,000 boats annually. The towpath is part of National Cycle Network route 78, which links Campbeltown, Oban, Fort William and Inverness.

The canal was originally built for commercial sailing vessels and later Clyde puffers to travel between the industrialised region around Glasgow to the West Highland villages and islands. It was designed by civil engineer John Rennie and work started in 1794, but the canal was not completed until 1801 (two years later than planned). Problems, particularly with the locks, meant that some parts of the canal had to be redesigned - a task that fell to Thomas Telford in 1816. The locks were again reconstructed and deepened in the 1930s, and the canal became the responsibility of British Waterways in 1962.